Food compositions (and in particular savoury food compositions) contain in many cases fat. This is especially the case for particulate and/or pasty compositions like preparations for instant cream-style soups and sauces, which to a large extent consist of fat, starch or a starchy matter, and salt and flavourings. Particulate in this context is to be understood as powder, flakes, cubes, pellets etcetera (i.e. non fluid).
(Mixtures for) cream-style soups and sauces as above referred, but also other products such as instant dishes like pasta with a sauce or wet soups and sauces often contain an ingredient which is referred to as a creamer, and/or creamer/whitener, and/or creamer/thickener, and/or non-dairy cream. These products usually contain fat blends that can provide a creamy taste and/or mouthfeel and/or improved body and/or viscosity and/or a whitening effect. Such products (herein after called creamers for brevity) can also be in the form of e.g. tablets as a non-dairy cream alternative. To be suitable in these applications the fat blends must have the appropriate physical properties in terms of melting behaviour, crystallisation behaviour, brittleness, organoleptic properties, taste, as well as physical and chemical stability. In order to increase stability, shelf life and solubility, the fat blends are commonly encapsulated or (partly) coated with another material, e.g. hydrophilic film forming materials. In such encapsulates or partly coated fats, the individual fat blend particles as well as clusters of fat blend particles are at least partially covered and/or surrounded by the encapsulation material. The fat blends should therefore also be suitable for being submitted to encapsulation and drying processes in order to form free flowing and highly dispersible products. The covering or encapsulation material often contributes to the properties of the creamer.
The fats in savoury compositions described above usually comprise a considerable amount triglycerides of fatty acids (hereinafter for short: triglycerides). Fats are usually mixtures of various triglycerides. The type of fat or fat blend used for a given purpose is determined (next to availability and price) by e.g. the properties the fat has and how it performs in a given product, and in the manufacture of such product. The fat should perform well on e.g. taste, melting in the mouth, taste keepability, but also on ability to be processed into a suitable product as well as performance in the packed product, e.g. keepability (in particular fat staining for cubes packaged in cardboard).
The triglycerides (which form part or all of the fat) are usually obtained from vegetable sources and may have been subjected to various treatments, such as fractionation (dry or wet), purification, hardening, interesterification, blending etcetera, to give the fat the desired product properties. Hardening unsaturated fat or triglycerides to saturated or partially unsaturated fat or triglycerides is in particular a tool used to obtain the desired melting behaviour. In this way, oils or soft fats can be turned into fats showing more suitable properties for solid or dry formulations.
The hardening process (in particular partial hardening) may lead to formation of a certain amount of so-called trans-unsaturated fatty acids (and/or triglycerides containing such trans-unsaturated fatty acids as acyl moiety), in short TFA's. For various reasons it may be desired to reduce or eliminate the amount of trans-unsaturated fatty acids (and triglycerides thereof) in products. For spreads (margarines and the like) a wide range of possible alternative fats and triglycerides are proposed, as is disclosed in e.g. WO 97/16978 and WO 96/39855.
The triglycerides mentioned in such applications frequently contain lauric acid (C12 saturated fatty acid). It has been found that when one wishes to find an alternative for the trans-unsaturated fatty acids (and fats containing them) in savoury-type food applications (in which the creamers are often used) lauric acid (and its triglycerides) is undesired. Lauric acid and triglycerides containing lauric acid may show a range of desirable properties, in particular melting behaviour, but in a savoury food application triglycerides of lauric acid were found to lead to a (soapy) off-flavour, especially after prolonged storage.
Hence, there is a desire for creamer, and/or creamer/whitener, and/or creamer/thickener, and/or non-dairy creamer alternative and also (savoury) food compositions such as (mixtures for) cream-style soups and sauces, (instant) food compositions, meal makers and others that contain such creamer, or creamer/whitener, and/or creamer/thickener, and/or non-dairy creamer alternative, wherein the creamer, and/or creamer/whitener, and/or creamer/thickener, and/or non-dairy creamer alternative which contain triglyceride fats which are low in trans-unsaturated fatty acids (e.g. below 5% of the total fats present, preferably less than 2%). Still such creamer, and/or creamer/whitener, and/or creamer/thickener, and/or non-dairy creamer alternative should be not too difficult to manufacture and process in comparison to the conventional products, and should still perform well in a (savoury) food composition comprising carbohydrates, in particular concerning processability, fat staining, crystallisation, mouthfeel, and other characteristics as mentioned above.
Preferably, such product should also be low in lauric acid or triglycerides thereof (e.g. below 10% of the total fats present, preferably less than 3%, most preferably less than 0.5% wt of the total fats present). Also, the alternative fats should combine well with the coating/encapsulation material. Suitable encapsulation material for the creamers etcetera according to the invention are edible proteins such as for example milk proteins, hydrolysed proteins, edible carbohydrates, such as for example starch or modified starches as well as sugars, sugar syrups or sugar derivatives, dextrines or maltodextrines etcetera. The creamers in the form of encapsulated or covered fat usually contain 20-80% wt of encapsulation material, based on the total creamer.
Triglyceride fats can be grouped according to the fatty acids of which they consist (i.e. the acyl moiety of triacyl glycerides). Such groups can be identified by a letter, and herein:    H means saturated fatty acid of 16 carbon atoms or longer (C16+, e.g. up to C24)    U means unsaturated fatty acids in cis conformation (any chain length)    E means unsaturated fatty acids in trans conformation (any chain length)    M means saturated fatty acids of 10-14 carbon atoms (C10-C14)As the present application is about triglycerides of such fatty acids, the fatty acid composition of the triglycerides is given by for example:    H3 (meaning a triglyceride of 3 saturated fatty acids of 16 or more carbon atoms)    H2E (meaning a triglyceride of 2 saturated fatty acids of 16 or more carbon atoms and 1 trans-unsaturated fatty acid)    H2M (meaning a triglyceride of 2 saturated fatty acids of 16 or more carbon atoms and 1 saturated fatty acid of 10-14 carbon atoms)    H2U (meaning a triglyceride of 2 saturated fatty acids of 16 or more carbon atoms and 1 cis-unsaturated fatty acid)    HE2 (meaning a triglyceride of 1 saturated fatty acid of 16 or more carbon atoms and 2 trans-unsaturated fatty acids), and so on for other 3 letter codes.Fat compositions can thus be characterised in containing certain weight percentages (based on the total amount of triglycerides) of triglycerides of the above codes.
Although it is mentioned for E and U that they may have any length, it is to be understood that this relates to fatty acids of approx. 8-24 carbon atoms, and more usually 16-20 carbon atoms.
EP 1038444 discloses hard butter compositions for use in chocolate, wherein said hard butter component comprises 50-80% SUS triglycerides (S being C16 and C18 saturated fatty acids, U being C15 and C18 unsaturated acids) and is free from trans acids and lauric acids.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,427 discloses compositions for use as coatings on ice creams, said compositions comprising 20-60% sugar, 20-70% fat, 0-30% protein. The fat is preferably low in trans unsaturated fatty acids and contains 25-80% SUS (S being saturated fatty acids of 16-24 carbon atoms, U being unsaturated acids of 18 or more carbon atoms), and the fat has a specified melting behaviour (N0 of 40-80, N20 of 15-60, N25 of 2-20). The compositions can be made by mixing all ingredients.
EP 545463 discloses a fat blend for confectionary (chocolate) not needing tempering, which fat blend is low in trans fatty acids, and which blend comprises more than 50% SUS (S being saturated fatty acids of 16-24 carbon atoms, U being C18:1 and C18:2) and less than 30% S′OS′ (S′ being saturated fatty acids of 16-18 carbon atoms, 0 being C18:1).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,114 discloses ice cream coating compositions with reduced waxiness and a low content of trans unsaturated fatty acids, wherein the fat composition contains less than 10% SSS, 25-80% SUS. 2-20% SSU, 8-60% SUU and USU, less than 10% UUU (S being saturated fatty acids of 16-24 carbon atoms, U being unsaturated acids of 18 or more carbon atoms). The coating composition may contain (next to 20-70% of said fat) the usual ingredients for such compositions: 25-60% sugar, and 0-30% cocoa powder, milk proteins, flavours and emulsifiers. The compositions can be made by mixing all ingredients.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,938 discloses manufacturing a batter, a dough, and bakery products such as cookies and cakes with lower than normal SAFA (saturated and trans fatty acid residues).
WO 94/16572 discloses manufacturing a (homogeneous) puff-pastry margarine containing at least 60% fat, the fat being free of trans fatty acids.